By now, most Potter fans have already seen the news. For those who haven't, read the full scoop - or what we have anyways - here.
"What we have" being the operating term here because it's only a soundbyte from a larger interview, which could shed more context on the situation and make it less... controversial.
C'mon, Jo, part of what made your books bestsellers is that you wrote them the way you did. Saying that you should have gone with a more predictable romance? In my opinion, this would just water the books down. I think your gut was right.
Yes, I could see how people could legitimately ship Harry and Hermione. Personally I think their relationship was terribly platonic - I've seen friendships like this and no matter how good of friends they are, there's not going to be romance there. There's just not.
Ron + Hermione is not going to make the most tranquil couple ever - but we all love well-written quarreling couples, don't we? Elizabeth and Darcy, Beatrice and Benedick, Rhett and Scarlett... we adore them.
And I've always thought that Ginny and Harry were well-suited for each other, that they would complement one another perfectly. And I'm not the only one to appreciate the strong similarities that Ginny has to Harry's mother - and men do often fall for women like their mothers, just as girls are drawn to men with similar traits to their fathers.
I think Ron+Hermione adds a strong side romance to the book, and I think it makes the whole dynamic more realistic.
But that's not really the point here, is it? The point, when it comes down to it is... why would Rowlings say something like this? She could hardly throw out something more controversial ("Dumbledore is Gay" won that award already), and at this late stage in the game, it doesn't seem like much more than an attention grabber. Which sounds pretty terrible to say, but really, why distress so many fans and rekindle the shipping wars that (let's be honest) were the darker side of the HP fandom?
She's very entitled to talk about her books. Goodness knows she kept them to herself during the whole writing process and deserves the chance to hash them out! But there are some bits I think are better kept locked away in her brain closets, and this is one of them.
Oh well, at the very least, it goes to show that even when your book is finished, published, and the example of worldwide bestseller, you can still wish you had the chance to edit some things. Whether that will encourage or discourage the perfectionists among us, I don't know.
1 comment:
I think audiences tend to blur the Ron of the movie with the Ron of the books. When you read the books, you see more of Ron's admirable qualities, and it makes more sense why a girl who is more intellectually oriented would be attracted to someone like Ron. He may not be as book smart as Hermione, but he has street smarts, plus he also knows more about the wizarding world than Hermione and Harry simply b/c of his upbringing. Ron also has better people skills than Hermione, so they compliment each other in several ways.
Ron is also loyal, trustworthy, and supportive, three key qualities one should look for in a potential husband. And, though Rowling doesn't say Ron's exceptionally handsome, she doesn't say he's exceptionally ugly, so there could definitely be some chemistry/attraction there. Plus, I liked how in the HP books you don't have the stereotypical romance where the leading hero gets the leading lady. If that's not what JK Rowling had in mind, then in the words of St. Augustine, "Oh happy fault!"
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